20 
All the developments just mentioned have become prominent only 
in the course of the last 25 years. Rather more recently 
attention has been drawn to a development which is not new but 
has been accelerating recently and is being recognized more 
and more as one of the most pregnant changes in our time: It is 
the growing power and influence of the international (or 
"multi-national") concerns. Their origin is manifold: On 
the one hand exploitation of the resources of undevelopped 
countries, on the other hand technical know-how combined with 
protectionism. Although their share in the manufacturing and 
mining industries of industrial countries is usually less 
than twenty percent, this share is bound to grow quickly because 
the multi-national concerns grow faster than the rest of 
industry in many countries. The power of these concerns threatens 
to transcend that of national governments, at any rate those 
of the smaller industrial countries, not to speak of less 
developped countries where their influence is not new. The 
process of concentration which is dealt with in this book, has 
therefore reached a new and higher stage. 
At the same time there has been a complete volte face in the 
awowed policies of national governments with regard to 
amalgamations and large concerns. Whereas formerly these were 
officially blamed for their monopolistic practices, and mono 
poly legislation was still being introduced in European 
countries in the 1950'ies (its practical effectiveness may